ABSTRACT
As a student at Paterson State College in Wayne, New Jersey, during 1958-1959, I enrolled in a Junior High School educational methods class taught by Sidney B. Simon. Sid had just earned his doctorate and had exciting ideas to share about how to teach potential teachers. Th at turned out to be one of the most memorable associations with a teacher of my life. Why was this so? Sid had a warm personality and a way of showing me that he cared about who I was as a person, as well as a potential teacher. His excitement about teaching was contagious. He taught by structuring class experiences so that the students could get to know him and each other. He also wanted to know about our lives outside of the classroom and he invited us to share this by writing a “Th ought Card” (TC) each week. On a 4" × 6" TC we could write about anything we wanted —information about the course, our life in general, our questions, or any other topic we wanted to share. He then responded nonjudgmentally to our comments and returned the index card during the next class. I vividly remember anticipating his written responses because he seemed interested in who I was and what I thought.
